First week in 2021 is almost completed. What a week it has been. This really feels like a continuation of the twilight zone in this writers humble opinion. This pandemic, the political unrest, the emotional and financial stress from all sides, the spiritual awakening and prophecies being fulfilled. Trying to keep home and hearth together, reaching out to others and reaching up to Him more. Everyone feel overwhelmed? I know I do. To hear the struggle and strife, the mental well being of others are suffering is beyond compare. We were a world of keyboard warriors and now we are like the boy forced to stay in a bubble and our keyboards are on fire. People are so isolated, so afraid, so angry at times. So what thread are you hanging on to? What is keeping you same through these days that have been so intense?
I have committed to getting back more into my Bible and devotions this year. I have drifted away from Him during these storms of life and needed that life preserver in my life. I need to be more centered in this storm and not so carried away. My devotional today was about the woman who touched the hem of His garmet with the faith she would be healed. Her faith was in Him and not the Roman politics, the neighborhood gossip, the medicine people. She heard of One who was traveling from town to town performing miracles and she had the faith that if she could just touch that hem of that garmet she would be healed. She had suffered isolation as she was considered unclean, kind of like each of us now with fears of this virus or feel we are unworthy of healing or whatever self isolation we have placed upon ourselves. She touched that hem that was dusty from the roads He had traveled, the very bottom of his garmet, the very last threads of what He wore. What a thread to try and grasp, not the end of our ropes but the thread that leads to Him. Her faith carried her forward, her shame made her hide once it was realized His power had been touched, her bravery to step out of the isolation and crowd, her feeling of being unclean, her faith to be healed by this man from Nazarene. She reached for that thread, she reached out. This one woman in the crowd of many, seeking help. Humbling herself before others, reaching out for His help. This made me think how many times we all hang on by a thread, that we knot the threads of everything in our lives but our faith and how easily that thread can become unraveled. That how our faith stumbles and how we lose sight of what is in front of us. To touch the hem leads to the threads of our essence, our salvation and our hope for the days to come. That despite isolation, disease, discord, dispair, that hem of the garmet is within our reach. We have to reach out. Reach out knowing that He wants us to seek Him. We all are feeling the impact of this pandemic. It makes us obsessive about germs, it is isolating us, it is opening the door for mental health issues. We are staying tucked away, like this woman who due to her bleeding was considered unclean and isolated away. The toll on one’s emotional and physical well being is one that sometimes you can’t comprehend. We have the internet, binge worthy shows, ways to stay connected, some of us are working through this whole pandemic. Think of this woman, shunned from society, simple dwellings, having to forge her way to care for her home with dealing with her affliction for twelve years, ostracized from the gathering at the wells and harvest times. YET she reached for that hem. Which thread do we want to reach for today? The thread that leads to Him, the thread that slowly weaves us to be the person we are meant to be? The thread that weaves into the next chapters, the thread that weaves its way into the life of another? One deliberate thread can change the very pattern of our lives. Atleast I think so.
In this current climate of unrest, of turmoil we need to be more in tune than ever before in my opinion. I have so many opinions and haven’t been shy staring what they may be. That is a thread in me. I hope my opinions never come across in a haughty manner but the manner of what I think. If you think about it, our world is like the Pharasises and Saudicese. Even back then politics had a nasty side, a self serving side. You would think in the electronic age we are right now, that history would show us how we don’t want to be. You would think about what happens in other countries would make its way to these shores? The hem of the American flag has been trampled and abused, the same can be more than said about the hem of Jesus garmet. The thread of our government has been tattered and abused, it has been given at times to the principalities of this world while Jesus thread on His hem is not of this world. Which hem do you want to touch, which thread needs to be woven in our lives? I know I would take the thread of His hem then any unraveling of this world. I need His thread in my life.
Don’t get me wrong. I stumble and fall and fail everyday. I disappoint Him and I am not proud of that. Do I try to be better, do better,want better for my life? You bet I do. My past is checkered and sinful, my present is flawed but my future is fixed and focused on heaven. Am I perfect? No way. Am I real? Very much so. Like this blog, I have shared real thoughts, real ideas. Each has been as varied as the colors of the rainbow. Each is a part of me. I go from talking about a glass of wine, to a racy poem, to struggles, to God. Guess what? Each is a part of this sinner saved by grace who is hanging on by a thread, His thread.
So as we face turmoil in the days ahead, unrest, bickering, sometimes slander, sometimes gossip, days of illness days of sorrow and so much more, may we seek that hem of His garmet and have the faith that just from reaching out to that thread that we no longer are hanging by a thread. We are taking that thread and are being hemmed in to the One who loves us, who is more than any worldly struggle. Choose which thread we want to hang on to. Stay well my friends, stay safe and may you find a blessing in everyday.
